We’ve been through floods and drought in the past few years, which severely impacted cattle ranchers and the size of their herds. That’s changing.
“That drought spread across the U.S., too, but it dropped the numbers significantly, and we saw the run up in beef prices,” says Texas A & M University Extension Beef Cattle Specialist and Associate professor Dr. Jason Cleere. Things have returned to normal. “And subsequently on the production side, calf numbers have been cut in half.”
So beef producers aren’t exactly in hog-heaven but they’re not looking at losses like they have recently. From the time that calf is born will be another 17-24 months before it can be turned into meat for consumers. “The cattle numbers today are going to predict what the beef supply is going to be 2-3 years down the road,” says Dr. Cleere.
Dr. David Anderson, AgriLife Extension livestock economist in College Station expects to see beef prices dropping in the not too distant future.